New York Zoning and Municipal Law Blog
The N.Y. State Supreme Court found that an extensive review of environmental issues was sufficient to meet the requirements of SEQRA without preparation of an environmental impact statement. In Matter of Magat v. the Village of Bronxville Planning Board, the judge of the environmental claims part of the New York Supreme Court in Westchester County dismissed the petition brought to challenge the site plan and special permit approval for the expansion of a local hospital.
The Petitioners claimed, among other things, that the Planning Board failed to take a hard look at environmental issues, as mandated by SEQRA, due to the failure to require preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Yet, the Court noted the level of study, the public participation in the process and the fact that the plan was modified as a result of input from the Village’s boards, as well as the public (including the Petitioners) demonstrated that the required “hard look” was applied to this application, negating the need for a DEIS.
Petitioners further claimed that by constructing a foundation that could support additional floors in the future there was an improper segmentation of the SEQRA review. The Court found that there was no evidence that the hospital had any plan to construct additional floor and cited a communication from the hospital stating this fact, as well as the need to do the construction in a manner that did not preclude an application for future expansion, should the need arise. Citing the Planning Board’s negative declaration the Court found:
“… the Board found the Project ‘to be a whole action and not part of any long-range plan,’ and that any future applications for such expansion constituted ‘a necessarily speculative or hypothetical plan at this time.’… Nor is there any evidence in the Record that the addition reflected in the site plan was actually the first phase of a larger, unified project. Therefore, the Board’s failure to consider the potential environmental impacts from the construction of four additional floors did not constitute impermissible segmentation.”
The Court also rejected several other claims made by the Petitioners.
This matter was handled for the hospital by our partner, Katherine Zalantis.